Hal Steinbrenner sits down for an exclusive interview with the News, where he talks everything from the Yankees need to win this season to NYCFC soccer in the Bronx. (DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)

TAMPA − Hal Steinbrenner is fully aware of the lack of customary buzz for this coming Yankee season. He doesn't have to be told he's got a lot of bloated contracts on his payroll and that he hasn't been getting nearly enough bang for his buck from his biggest stars. The Yankee owner and managing general partner knows the days of a consistently sold-out Yankee Stadium are over until further notice — and what a third straight season out of the postseason money will do to his season-ticket fan base. He gets it.

There is only one remedy for all of this, Steinbrenner said Wednesday: "Plain and simple, we have to win."

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In a wide-ranging exclusive interview at his Steinbrenner Field office, Boss Hal addressed all of the issues confronting this present Yankee team, as well as issues that will affect the franchise as it approaches, hopefully, a new dawning of homegrown stars. While he may not have been as blunt and boisterous as his late dad − that's not his style − he didn't pull any punches either in regard to the Yankees' failures that led to the first consecutive years missing the playoffs since the early '90s, and what they need to do about it. Specifically:

- For the sake of attendance, it is imperative the Yankees get off to a good start.

- For the sake of the offense, right now the Yankees' biggest concern, it is imperative that Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran have seasons commensurate with their hefty salaries.

- If the Yankees don't make the postseason this year, everyone will shoulder the blame, starting with him.

Masahiro Tanaka is coming back from an arm injury. (Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News)

- Much of the blame for the Yankees going from the dominant team in baseball to a middle-of-the-pack also-ran can be attributed to the failures of their player-development department.

- Contracts for six or more years, especially for pitchers, are not good business in that they never work out over the full course.

- Revenue sharing in baseball has worked, but now it needs to be revisited.

- The Yankees are determined to get under the $189 million luxury tax payroll threshold but acknowledge it can't happen for at least two more years.

Like any baseball owner at this time of year, Steinbrenner waxes optimistic about his team's chances. His cup is mostly half full as he talks about the strides Michael Pineda has made and how the much-injured, 26-year-old righty and Masahiro Tanaka are arguably the best, most dominant 1-2 starting pitchers in the American League East. And he is especially excited about the relief corps of power arms GM Brian Cashman put together last winter with lefties Andrew Miller and Justin Wilson and righty David Carpenter complementing Dellin Betances in "the kind of a bullpen that will enable us to give Tanaka periodic rest and lighten the innings workload on all the starters."

Mark Teixeira (l.) looks to return to form as Joe Girardi manages a myriad of characters. (Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News)

It is the Yankee pitching that no doubt will be their strength this year, I agreed, but they can't expect to get back to the postseason finishing 13th in runs as they did a year ago. Of course, last year they got almost nothing out of Beltran and Teixeira, to whom Steinbrenner will be paying a combined $37 million in 2015, on top of the $21 million for Alex Rodriguez. Neither Beltran nor Teixeira has looked good this spring, but it's still early. However, that's potentially a lot of dead weight in the middle of the lineup if they don't rebound from their injury-plagued 2014s, and when you further consider neither Didi Gregorius nor Stephen Drew at the bottom of the lineup might hit even .220, well...

"I understand," Steinbrenner said. "It's early and they're older, but for us to win, those guys (Beltran and Teixeira) in the middle of the lineup have got to produce. I put (Brian) McCann in there, too. We have a lot of money invested in them. And we don't know what to expect from Alex."

On the subject of money, we got to talking about free agency and the fact that the Yankees had to invest heavily in it in 2008, spending a combined $423 million on CC Sabathia, Teixeira and A.J. Burnett. As Steinbrenner said, "we did win a World Series." But now the contracts for the declining Sabathia ($53 million remaining through 2016) and Teixeira ($45 million remaining through 2016) are choking them, almost as much as the $61 million owed A-Rod the next three years. Had the player-development department done its job, I suggested, the Yankees wouldn't have had to invest so much in longterm free agent contracts. So was it worth it in the long haul?

Who are these guys? Meet the 2015 Yankees

"Well, we hoped to win a lot more World Series," Steinbrenner said, "but stuff happened in Detroit (2011 and 2012) and Texas (2010) and we just didn't get there. I understand the criticism of our player-development department, but we've addressed that. Our new head man there, Gary Denbo, has worked all different jobs all through our system and demands accountability. We brought in Jody Reed as field coordinator. We've got people with major-league experience working with our kids at the lower levels − it was very disturbing for me to hear complaints from our major-league coaches that players would get up here and didn't even know how to bunt . . . things like that.

"And we've had better drafts of late. You're starting to see the fruits of that (first baseman Greg Bird, second baseman Rob Refsnyder, right fielder Aaron Judge, all considered legitimate major-league prospects, deemed close to major-league ready, who were on display this spring). If there's one thing that's really excited me this spring it's those kids."

Steinbrenner is looking to hoist the World Series trophy just like he did back in 2009. (Nick Laham/Getty Images)

"I found that very interesting," he said, smiling, "given that we offered $25 million (for Moncada) and spent substantially in the international market (a reported $26.82 million in bonuses and penalties for greatly exceeding their bonus allotment). I'm not saying we'll never give another seven-year contract, but going in you know you're probably only going to get three-four good years out of it. It remains my goal to get under that $189 million (luxury-tax threshold), but it's not going to happen for at least two more years when these big contracts we have expire. But I've continued to say you shouldn't need $200 million to win a championship."

That said, the price of ballplayers keeps going up and up, and with more and more teams becoming enriched beyond their wildest dreams with new local TV networks, the Yankees no longer have the financial advantage they once did. Last year, they watched the Seattle Mariners, of all teams, step up to the plate and outbid them by $70 million for Robinson Cano. I offered up as another example the Marlins, one of the principal recipients of revenue sharing, setting the new market for premium players with their $325 million contract for Giancarlo Stanton, and the impact it will have on the whole industry.

"That's just one," Steinbrenner said, resignedly. "There are a lot others, too. It's concerning, but you have to accept the fact there's always going to be one (dumb owner?). Look, revenue sharing has been a good thing for baseball. It accomplished what was supposed to (be done), but I think there's got to be some adjustments made with it now."

We'd been talking for more than an hour, too much of it probably about money and what an insane business baseball has become, so I thought maybe Steinbrenner could use a change to a lighter topic: soccer. The new New York City FC Major League Soccer team, in which the Yankees are limited investors with Manchester City, played its first home game at Yankee Stadium last Sunday and drew 43,507 fans.

"I didn't know you were a soccer fan," I said.

"I wasn't," Steinbrenner said. "My brother Hank is the real soccer fan. But I have to tell you, (last Sunday) was real experience for me. It's a mostly young 25-35 crowd with all the signs and horns, really into it. It's a really cool sport, with constant motion. I really believe soccer's turned the corner."

He should only hope the soccer team is not the most exciting thing going on at Yankee Stadium this summer. Yankee fans, I said, got spoiled by all those championships from 1996-2000 and even though no team will ever have a run like that again, those same fans have come to expect the Yankees to at least go into the season as World Series favorites. There is, however, no such anticipation about this team, and Steinbrenner seems to understand that.

"We have to win," he repeated.

And if they don't? Should Cashman and Joe Girardi be worried about their jobs if the Yankees fail to make the postseason for the THIRD straight time with a payroll above $200 million?

"We're all accountable here," Steinbrenner said, "starting with me. I'm the one who approved all these contracts."